Week after week Charlie and Miles continue their search for Danny, leading to this moment in which they are so close they can practically reach out and touch him. That is, if only they can figure out where exactly he is being hidden by Neville, whose backstory is up for grabs. That, and there is a train. A “Soul Train” (Seriously!?).
Remembering Maggie
Just kidding. Maggie might be fresh in the ground, but according to Miles, “we have no time for this,” as he continues to present himself as a man on a mission instead of the caring uncle with a tape deck that Charlie remembers him to be. After all, Danny is so close; so close in fact that two seconds later they’re standing right outside the small town he is being held in. Awkward editing fail.
Finding Danny
Once within the town, Miles, Nora, and Charlie decide to scope the place out looking for hints to where Danny is, leaving Aaron on guard duty. It’s actually surprising that this decision didn’t go much worse since we know how well Aaron handles certain situations (remember last week when Charlie was kidnapped and he didn’t even try going after her?). Luckily for him, when he dropped the most valuable thing in the world into Not Nate’s reach, Not Nate was nice enough to hand the pendant back over. Crisis diverted.
The real trouble with Not Nate actually comes later when Miles and Charlie have to resort to torturing him for information since Charlie ruined everything by failing in her attempt to tail Neville (though she does get some credit for being swift on her feet about the cheating boyfriend, until her eyes gave her away when Neville mentioned his name), which Miles is happy to yell about in her face, as per usual. Not Nate makes the wise decision against torture, so instead of laughing in Charlie’s face when she tried to play it tough and said that if he doesn’t help them than she can’t help him he made like a ninja and performed what looked like the easiest escape ever.
A Man Named Neville
As an intimidating, take-no-nonsense militiaman, Neville never really seemed to be a fitting name for the Captain, at least until tonight when we see where he came from. It turns out that on the day of the blackout he was fired from his insurance job for being too compassionate with an unfortunate family. Then the blackout happened, and soon after he finds his neighbor in his kitchen, leading to the pot boiling over. Nobody takes Neville’s finest silverware!
As Revolution continues to work in flashbacks, we are seeing examples of when this works and when it doesn’t. Take last week when there were some rather sad memories from Maggie of her search for her kids that led to the lowest point of her life, giving her death more weight than there would have been had we just been presented with who she is now. Tonight Neville’s story is presented, showing that he was a rather weak, cowardly man who was stepped on by those who were stronger willed than he (seriously, how’d he get that wife? I can’t even imagine him being able to talk to her when they first met.), until he chose to change because weakness means death, and he wants to survive.
This works as a character arc, sure, but it really flattened out Neville as a character in comparison to who he was before. In previous episodes he was this soldier not to be messed with for both his physical presence as well as his intimidating strength of mind and dedication to his beliefs: calm, collected, and scary. But tonight this latter portion was lost to this representation of a man who was led by anger, beating up teenagers during Fight Club and drooling at the opportunity to “shoot the bitch” because he has the power to do so. Talk about a downgrade.
Not Nate’s Name Revealed
Another problem with the flashbacks is that they completely ruin the surprise of the episode. Along with Neville’s wife, we see that he also has a son who seems to be around Charlie’s age during her flashback sequences. And then we cut back to present day with scenes of our main gang that just so happens to have Not Nate in tow, as well as the look in Neville’s eye when Miles mentions a certain tight shirted man they’re holding. Surprise! He’s Neville’s son, Jason.
The reveal had no shock value to it at all, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t be excited for this connection as we already see some trouble between the two brewing. As a man who hates weakness, it should be interesting to see how he handles Jason after ignoring a command in order to save Charlie’s life by throwing her off the train (side question: how do you shield your head when being thrown from a train?). Plus the romantic in me is even more excited for what this means for our star-crossed lovers. It just got so much more intense now that Jason isn’t simply a part of the militia!
Final Thoughts
With a train in this week’s episode, it seems like a wasted opportunity that Miles didn’t get to cross swords with anyone on top of it while moving at high speeds, but I guess that was just too much to ask for. Not only that, but without being hindered by an explosion, the train is now set on its way to Philly with Danny in tow, meaning the “We have to find Danny!” storyline isn’t over. But at least now it should mix in with Monroe and Rachel’s stories as well, meaning less time divided among the plots.
So what did you think of this week’s episode? Were you disappointed in this showing from Neville? Were you impressed by how Nora disguised the bomb? Or by how quickly Rachel drew the pendant? Are you upset that Revolution seems to love stabbing its female characters? Are you excited that now that Danny’s involved Rachel is going to spill all kinds of information about the blackout? Let me know all your thoughts on this week’s episode below!
